Where is Marc Cenedella now?

Patience is not one of Marc Cenedella's personality traits. In 2003, when the dot-com survivor created TheLadders.com, a site for $100,000-plus jobs, he refused to pay developers $30,000 and wait three months for a prototype. Instead, the self-described "computer geek" bought a $359 Web programming book and built it himself.

It wasn't hard for the straight-A student, who graduated in the top 5% of his Harvard Business School class, to pick up the computer coding. The site was ready to go live in three weeks.

"When I have an idea, I have to have it up and running," he says.

Since then, TheLadders has become one of the fastest-growing tech firms in the city. With 316 employees, the company is on track to generate $100 million in revenue this year, up 54% from 2008. The recession and its corresponding job losses have actually been a boon.

"Marc has many passions; TheLadders is one of them," says Alex Douzet, a co-founder of TheLadders. "He is very energetic and one of the smartest people I have encountered."

Mr. Cenedella started his career at HotJobs.com, where he helped orchestrate the dot-com's $436 million sale to Yahoo in 2001.

And while the serial entrepreneur hasn't slowed down much since, he does know how to enjoy himself. When an attempt to go solo an effort to purchase jobs board Dice.com failed, he took a six-month trip around the world.